Rainbow Periphery
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: Inspired by the events of "The Sonic Rainboom", Rarity makes a dress she will never sell. Dashity friendship. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: Blah blah, do not own, blah blah Hasbro blah blah Lauren Faust.

Since I've written a Pinkie Pie fic, I thought it only right I do one of my favourite unicorn, Rarity! This fic is a friendship fic for Rarity and Dashie, since out of the Mane Six they seem to interact the least and I wanted to explore that a bit. (Plus, Dashie is my favourite character. :D She'll get her own story at some point.) It's not really a shipping fic, but you can see it that way if you want, I won't stop you. XD Rated K+ for slight mentioning of death, but nothing really heavy.

Enjoy!

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Rarity could not imagine a life without her powers as a unicorn.

It seemed a strange revelation that the fashionatisa had never once questioned herself, been unsure at her very structure. You heard many stories about ponies envying each other- Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasus alike wondering what it would be like to spend a day in the body of someone different.

Not Rarity. Since the day she got her cutiemark, she knew what her calling as, and stressful as her work could be at times, she'd never once looked back.

But the day Rarity was given wings; she had never anticipated this day would have the power to change so much.

The truth was, something Rarity had never admitted to anyone, but when her wings burnt up in the sun and she had plunged helplessly towards the earth, she honestly thought that she was going to die. And in blind, undiluted panic, she had inadvertently doomed the only ponies that even stood a chance of catching her. She seemed to have a predilection to make things worse for herself, and in that moment all she could do was scream out in fear and hopelessness as the sky seemed to move further and further away from her flailing limbs.

Or so she'd thought.

But that day, Rarity got to witness something incredible for the second time in her life, only this time, she had inadvertently been the cause of it. The Sonic Rainboom.

And Rainbow Dash didn't even hesitate, not for split second. Rarity could only stare helplessly at the blue rocket hurtling towards her. All she could do was gasp as she found that she was soaring through the sky as the three Wonderbolts Rainbow Dash managed to carry groaning softly as they regained consciousness.

That day, Rarity had unintentionally become part of another legend.

And, being an artiste, once the girls had returned to Ponyville, Rarity found sleep impossible. The wheels in her head were rapidly turning, replaying the events of that day over and over again in her head. Rainbow Dash, pushing herself to limits that some Pegasus could only dream of accomplishing, managing to pull off what was once thought to be a myth. The Rainboom itself was truly a breathtaking sight to behold, colors pluming out in a ring as it exploded into the sky.

Opal, from her position on the windowsill, watched a little dizzily at the colors blurred past her as her owner began to work.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet...before Rarity knew it, she was using her magic to pull out sheets of fabric, rolling it out on her work desk, automatic reflexes as a designer kicking in as she began comparing the colors, measuring out the fabric and rummaging around for her sewing scissors. The only reason the snow-white unicorn even noticed the dawn was breaking was when she suddenly realized that she no longer had to squint in concentration, trying to make out each different shade in the pale light of the moon or the flickering glow of the candle beside her.

She hummed to herself as she worked, her mind totally focused on her current task. The fact that Rarity was unhampered by customer demands, cost or time limits strangely meant that she almost felt encouraged to continue working away steadily over the next few days. Opal, who knew when her owner had really been taken over by her imagination, merely grumbled about the shortage of attention she was used to receiving, before making herself scarce, as she was all too familiar with Rarity's absent-minded carelessness when she was engrossed in something.

Rarity stood back, cocking her head as she took in the result of several days (and nights) worth of toil.

This, she had to admit, was possibly one of the best dresses she had ever made.

A light breeze blew in through the half-open window, making the seven-hued garment flutter, and in the wind the colors rippled, melting seamlessly into one another with the motion, a bold, daring red and a fiery orange complimenting the soft, buttercup yellow she had used. The green had been a little trickier, as Rarity had trouble picking the perfect shades, but spring green darkened into an emerald, which faded into a beautiful sky blue. The blue deepened, putting the unicorn in mind of oceans, until the indigo gave away to lavender and then a violet finish with just the barest hint of pink at the end.

Staring at the dress, Rarity suddenly thought of how strange life was sometimes. If Rainbow Dash had never pulled off the first Sonic Rainboom, then she (and, if their own cutie mark stories were accurate), and her friends would never have gotten their cutiemarks. And if that hadn't of happened, then who was to say they would have all met the way they did and discovered they were the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony? Who would have stopped Nightmare Moon?

Using her magic to straighten the skirt of the dress and pluck away a stray thread near the neckline, Rarity sat down, and found herself staring into the rippling colors of the dress, lost in thought.

Suddenly, however, the white unicorn almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a rapid knocking at the door.

"Come in!" Rarity called.

"Hey, Rarity!"

If Rarity didn't know better, she would have thought all her thinking would have summoned her. There was hardly any mistaking a pony like Rainbow Dash.

"Hello, Rainbow Dash." Rarity smiled as the Pegasus fluttered over to her. "What brings you here?"

"We haven't seen you in, like, three days, that's what!" Rainbow Dash answered, as though it was obvious, which Rarity supposed it was. "Where've you been, Rarity? Doing stuff for a client?"

Rarity didn't have to respond when the Pegasus turned her wine-colored eyes to the garment before her.

"Whoa...what's this?" Rainbow asked. For some reason, she sounded nervous.

"Oh, this? It's just...something I've been working on..." Rarity said, a little puzzled by the blue mare's reaction.

Rainbow's hooves made a soft clicking sound as she descended from her hovering position.

"That's not...for me, is it, Rarity?" Rainbow asked, uncertainly.

Rarity supposed this was a normal reaction for Rainbow Dash, but she had to admit that she was a little surprised that Rainbow thought that Rarity had made such an intricate dress for her, considering that the tomboy pony was less then comfortable in outfits like this. Staring from the wary-looking Rainbow to the dress, however, Rarity could concede that the color scheme would fit Rainbow Dash perfectly.

"No, no..." Rarity said, then for some reason she found herself getting slightly embarrassed. "It's just...well, I've been thinking a lot about the Young Fliers competition."

Upon being reassured that she was not in for an impromptu fashion show, Rainbow trotted curiously forward to examine the dress further. The colors looked great, the Pegasus could admit. It was even better then the dress Rarity had made for the fashion show. The designer had come a long way in such a short space of time, and Rainbow Dash could see she had worked herself to the bone on it. Now that she was up close, she also noticed that little gems were interwoven subtly into the fabric, along the hemline and the thin straps. Interestingly, the gems had been attached to their contrasting colors, sapphires sparkling up against the scarlet, emeralds glittering on the amethyst, rubies gleaming against azure...

"The Young Flier's competition?" Rainbow Dash echoed, after a moment's silence as she perused Rarity's latest project. "...Oh."

Rarity bit her lip as realization dawned on Rainbow Dash's face. The Pegasus turned to face Rarity with a bit of a stunned expression.

"You made this 'cause of the Sonic Rainboom?" she asked her, sounding both incredulous and in awe at the same time.

"Well, more to say I was inspired by it, but...yes." Rarity chuckled slightly, rising into a standing position. "After all, it's not just everyday that one comes to close to falling to their untimely demise, only for something as incredible as a Sonic Rainboom to happen!"

Rainbow looked between Rarity and the garment, nodding.

"Yeah, I guess so." she agreed. Her ears pricked up as she thought of something. "So, how much is this baby going for, anyway?"

"It's not for sale."

Here, the Pegasus rose into the air in surprise, turning to face the fashionista in nothing short of total astonishment.

"What?" gasped Rainbow. "But Rarity, you could get a fortunate with this dress! It's the best one I've ever _seen_! You'd have to be crazy not to sell it!"

Despite the lack of tact in Rainbow Dash's outburst, Rarity felt a surge of fondness for her rambunctious friend. It wasn't really Rainbow Dash's forte to be subtle, so this slightly ill-worded declaration told Rarity that Rainbow Dash was truly impressed with her accomplishment, and she knew that her suggestion that Rarity sell it was made out of concern.

"I suppose I could earn a lot, yes." Rarity conceded, as Rainbow threw her a puzzled expression. "But...I couldn't. The memory, the sentimental value behind this isn't something that can have a price placed on it."

Rainbow Dash cocked her head slightly, slowly lowering herself to the ground.

"And if you think about it...none of this would have happened without your first Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash." Rarity went on, with a little smile. "We wouldn't have all met like this, and we wouldn't all bear the Elements. And then at the Young Flier's competition...it's funny how some things come into a full circle, isn't it? But it all turned out in the best way, because now, all of us are friends. And that is what I was thinking when I made this dress, I suppose."

Rainbow Dash felt herself blushing. While a braggart by nature, it was hard for her to come up with one of her blasé remarks in the face of such sentimentality. She wasn't really great at handling the "sappy stuff", but even she could see the genuine feeling in both Rarity's words and the object that stood between the two of them, still flowing slightly in the faint breeze.

"I'd never thought of it like that." Rainbow volunteered. "I guess it IS pretty cool, huh?"

Rarity chuckled, and Rainbow Dash felt herself joining in almost reflexively, when a voice interrupted their mirth.

"I found them, I found them!"

A second later, the unicorn and Pegasus were accosted by bouncing ball of pink.

"Rainbow, you were supposed to go get Rarity, not have us come get you!" Pinkie Pie giggled. "C'mon! Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy are all waiting for us in the meadow! We're having a picnic! I love picnics, I even love saying picnic! Who even came up with it? PICNIC-!"

Rarity rolled her eyes affectionately as Pinkie Pie jabbered on, bouncing in her endearingly peculiar way towards the door. Rainbow Dash easily kept pace with the Earth pony, and Rarity could hear her exclaiming,

"Jeez, Pinkie, take a breath!"

With a wistful smile, Rarity careful lifted the dress with her magic and settled it on one of her clothes horses, automatically smoothing out a wrinkle before heading out of the door. She didn't even have to worry about losing sight of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie- even if she couldn't hear Pinkie's rapid chatter; there was always the shimmering rainbow above her to guide the way.

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Yay, a decent ending! :D (To make up for how long it took to pick a title, I guess. XD)

Thanks for reading! ~


End file.
